➤ Hearthstone: The Witchwood: The Review 🎮

April 2018 marks the end of the Mammoth year and the beginning of the Raven year, which theoretically means a substantial change to the Hearthstone metagame. With the abandonment of the cards of Whispers of the Ancient Gods, A night in Karazhan and Slums of Meccania, the decks that dominated the standard format until a few days ago should have disappeared in a cloud of smoke, replaced by new interesting and stimulating proposals . This, at least, has always been the fundamental idea behind every single expansion. On the other hand, it is essential for a game to know how to renew itself from month to month to keep the interest of users high, but after all these years it would seem that something, in terms of ideas and originality, has failed, returning a strong sense of deja vù to those who, on Hearthstone, have already spent many hours on it. Is the Witchwood a flop then? Certainly not, as Hearthstone remains one of the best card games on the market, but something hasn't gone quite right. Let's try to find out together what and ask ourselves if it can be fixed.

New Keywords

That everything is not as expected can be seen immediately by analyzing the new keywords entered for the occasion. Not as brilliant as found, potentially having little impact on the gameplay and generally easy to read even for newbies, the new card powers do not give the appearance of knowing how to give that extra edge to Hearthstone as it had been for the Death Knights or legendary weapons . In short, there is no upheaval in the game such as to wipe out the old decks and make new ones arrive and by hanging out for the ladder in these first weeks it is clear how the more solid decks such as the Cubelock or the Aggro Paladin still do the beautiful. and bad weather. Certainly there are experiments and some classes are back to being usable - first of all the Quest Warrior - but the general feeling is that after this first period where curiosity is king, the meta will return to flatten violently towards the solidity expressed by the same decks that dominated last season. This is simply because the Assault mechanic, which allows allies to attack other creatures as soon as they are played or Echo, thanks to which the same card once activated will return to your hand every time until the end of the turn, are unable to tow decks to victory. . It must also be said that these mechanics are not entirely new to Hearthstone and this is perhaps the thing that most makes you turn up your nose. Assault, for example, had already been implemented in the Lightning Gigantosaurus (even if it took it from the battle cry) and a similar concept had already been seen in the Icehowl Yeti while for what concerns Echo, Unstable Evolution replicated it on its own. Truly new then remain the Worgen that change life and health at every turn while you hold them in your hand and the ability to create decks based only on odd or even cards, a real new innovation of this Witchwood and unique, at least for now, a source of pride. .

Little innovation but it is the right way

True, we have been very critical about the new keywords, but the first expansion of the new year is the one that lays the groundwork to show the way Blizzard intends to follow and somehow we notice the will to abandon the much hated randomness in favor of more controllable mechanics. In short, the direction is right, it is a pity that these good intentions are gradually limited by some single cards that still make fate their most important aspect. Let's talk about the Troublesome Crow, for example, capable of summoning a two-mana minion every time a spell is cast, or the evil Ciciazampa: the conceptually most incorrect card ever in the history of the Blizzard card game. All the hype aroused in these days comes from the power of the aforementioned monstrosity that will replicate every single Battle Cry launched in the match. It is a shaman class card and works particularly well only in a certain type of deck, but it again creates that very unpleasant situation where you get to win or lose without being able to apply an effective response and, above all, without the use of any skills. particular. Just play a series of cards over the course of the game to ensure victory - really nerve-wracking. To make the situation even worse, it takes the time for the animations that can take several minutes per shift, an absurdity that really seems to have escaped any kind of quality control in Blizzard, despite even Ben Brode had already alarmed the Team 5 and the same players. Why then release such a card? How is it possible not to notice the consequences in advance? Mysteries of an expansion that doesn't seem to be in its best form.

What awaits us in the future?

Taking note of some big problems that this expansion brings with it, the time has not yet come to tear your clothes and throw your collection of cards into the virtual fireplace, since the corrections to the most obvious defects should arrive within a few days. Even the balances in the arena are not yet perfect and the new cards, as it was for the last expansions, are struggling to appear in the draft, leaving essentially unchanged the classes that have dominated this format until April 12, with wizard, paladin and thief firmly in the first places in the standings. One of the highlights of the Hearthstone experience is still missing and that is that glorious PvE against artificial intelligence that in the last period has been able to fill and fill the moments of tiredness by giving players many extra hours, without the need to spend and giving as also reward some greedy rewards. We close then hoping that when the changes arrive, the situation on Hearthstone has been gradually improving, perfecting and varying a goal that seems to always run aground on the proposals of the latest expansion. Perhaps some pieces of the puzzle are missing to understand exactly the future, missteps that Hearthstone can afford not having real competitors on the market, capable as it is of offering a fun and not too technical experience really suitable for anyone.

Comment

Tested version PC Windows Resources4Gaming.com

7.5

Readers (4)

6.1

Your vote

Witchwood is not exactly a perfect expansion, much less one of those capable of disrupting the game as we know it, but rather a more of the same that adds quantity and some new variables. With such a simple work from the design point of view, however, it was a must to expect the absence of the most trivial problems such as Ciciazampa, especially after the experience gained with Yogg Saron, and perhaps a finishing work that would take away the power from the classes that have held it for too long now. The road taken to change the way to play, however, is the right one, also thanks to the inclusion of the Assault mechanic that pushes to play more actively, and only the future will be able to tell us if the Witchwood will have been a step towards a brighter tomorrow or one towards the abyss. Good catches!